Translating the Paraclete Passages and the Mission of the Spirit

The Paraclete passages in the Gospel of John give us a wealth of information concerning the work and mission of the Holy Spirit. We see how the Spirit will interact with the disciples after Jesus leaves and how the Spirit will act toward the world. But within these passages there are some difficult translational issues, mainly surrounding the term Paraclete itself. Scholars have long discussed the term, how it relates to others and its background and use. This paper will seek to discuss many of the translation problems surrounding the Paraclete passages, while at the same time giving attention to the passages as a whole and its message of the Spirit and his mission. It will be demonstrated that we see the Spirit-Paraclete taking up many of the activities of Jesus who was the first Paraclete and the Spirit is the “other Paraclete” (John 14:16).

This paper will also seek to emphasize in the term Paraclete the role of speaking. While more recent discussion on the term Paraclete has been its legal or nonlegal background, it will be shown that a good commonality between both legal and nonlegal meanings is the Paraclete as a master of speech and rhetoric. Some time will also be given to John 16:7-11 which also contains the most translation issues in all the Paraclete passages (the meaning of “convict”, the hoti clauses).